That is a very good point. I suppose that my level of competency has developed all my life as my parents were high levels in karate, my uncle was 3rd Dan in Taekwondo and as a reslut I have trained in these martial arts prior to my beginning of Aikido. And I agree that looking at it in terms of hard and soft training is irrelevant when developing yourself. I suppose it comes back to the old phrase that we are all trying to get to the top of the mountain, were just taking different paths!